On July 27, 1919, an African American teenager named Eugene Williams was swimming with his friends in Lake Michigan when he crossed the informal border between the "white" and "black" beaches. Williams was then hit by stones thrown by a group of white men, drowning and immediately killed on the spot. The police, however, refused to arrest the white man responsible for the child's death. Angered reports of the event spread quickly around the city, causing violence to soon break out throughout the society between the black and white populations. Leading to several deaths, injuries, and loss of homes, the Chicago Race Riots of 1919, also referred to as the "Red Summer", was indeed a time when the racially segregated population finally unleashed their piled-up resentment of each other into a full-fledged clash of angry bloodshed.
All throughout the late 1910s as African American populations made their ways into white communities, a distinct divide was apparent in which both sides were rumbling and clashing with the gradual yet undeniable rise of racial tension. Having made their ways in the great migration to Northern cities, eager African-American citizens were on the search for freedom and democracy–– only to be struck with the distasteful denial of basic rights and segregation by the white community no different from those they endured during years of slavery. Meanwhile, World War I had finally come to an end, and thousands of respected, patriotic servicemen returned to their homes-- only to to see their jobs and opportunities to livelihood "stolen" by these newly arrived blacks or immigrants. With the revival of white supremacist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and the increasing militant attitudes of the African Americans demanding adequate equality under the law, both sides were simply waiting for the littlest cause to ignite the "Red Summer". Even if that unfortunate boy had not been killed on that hot, sunny July afternoon, the society was already at the brink of chaos, and the death of Eugene Williams indeed just happened to be the perfect stimulus.
Overall, the four-day nightmare of violence was the epitome of racial divide and dispute during the early 1900s, also representing the growing willingness among African American populations to continue their fight for rights in the face of prevalent oppression and injustice in the United States of America. The riot was indeed a landmark that allowed the nation to take the issue of racial segregation seriously at hand, consequently leading to further events throughout history that have allowed the equality African American people enjoy today.
